Process for preserving fruit-juices.



HERBERT c, GORE, or TAKOMA 1 mm, MARYLAND.

PROCESS FOR PRESERVING FRUIT-JUICES.

No Drawing.

Specification of Letters Patent.

(DEDICATED TO THE PUBLIC.)

ployee of the Department of Agriculture:

of the United States of America, residing at Takoma Park, in the State of Maryland,

(whose post ofiice address is Takoma Park,

Maryland,) have invented a new and useful Process for Preserving Fruit-Juices.

This application is made under the act of March 3,1883, chapter 143 (22'Stat., 625), and the invention herein described and claimed may be used by the Government of the United States or any of its oflicers or employees in the prosecution of work for the Government, or any person in the United States, without payment to me of anyroyalty thereon.

The object of my invention is to provide a process for treating fruit juices, whereby the foreign taste which. certain fruit juices acquire upon sterilization by heating, andupon keeping after sterilization, may be removed or entirely avoided, and, in addition, to efiect the removal of substances present in certain fruit juices, which coagulate, or have a tendency to coagulate, upon sterilization, or upon keeping after sterilization."

For accomplishing these objects, I treat the fruit juices with absorbent black of animal, mineral or vegetable origin, such as ebonite, norite, powdered bone black, lamp black, and charcoal,-in such away as to effeet the removal of the substance orsubstances which cause the juices to acquire flavors, upon heating, and upon keeping after sterilization, foreign to the fresh juice, and to effect the removal of the substances which coagulate upon heating by sterilization and upon keepingafter sterilization.

In practising my process, I first filter the fruit juicesjo be treated, but this step is not primarily essential, as I- find from expernn'ents that unfiltered fruit juiceswill respond to the process hereinafter described with substantially the same results as filtered fruit uices. I then treat the filter juice with a small prpport-ion, usually from one to three per cent., of absorbent black, preferably in the form of a powder; This mixture is allowed to 'stand in the cold for a period rangingfromfifteen minutes to onealf an hour, in order for the reactionto Patented Nov. 5, 1918. i

Application filed July 17, 1915. Serial-No. 40,502.

com'plte itself, or for absorption to take place. When the reaction or absorption has taken place, I subjectthe mixture to filtration for effecting the separation of the juice from the absorbent black. Following this step, I sterilize the fruit juice by heating it in the usual well-known manner.

Where orange or lemon juice is treated in the manner above described, I find that it before treating them with absorbent black,

and that such "filtration may be facilitated and more completely effected by previously adding a small proportion of infusorial earth to the fruit juices. I further find that it is necessary, at times, to add infusorial earth to the fruit juices afterrthey have been treated with absorbent black, for the purpose of removing traces of the absorbent black from the juices, which otherwise,

would 'remain therein in finely suspended condition. By adding infusorial earth to the juices subsequent to treatment withfabsorbent black, and filtering the mixture, I find that it is possible to remove all traces of the absorbent black. from the treated juices. w

In practice I find that the process described, consisting essentially in the treatment of fruit juices with absorbent black, is particularly advantageous in the treatment of apple cider. Heretofore, it has been found impracticable to prepare apple cider in a sterilized condition because the cider acquires a cooked taste upon heating, thereby injuring the quality of the product. By treating apple cider with absorbent black, such as, for example, powdered bone black, and then sterilizing it, no cooked flavor is discernible in the finished product. In addition, I find that said process is advantageous in treating cider which has been concentratedby freezing to a thin syrupyliquid.

trated cider, the product is treated with ab- 'jures its quality. If, in freezing concensorbent black, as hereinbefore described, the

product will no longer deteriorate in flavor upon heating. 7

This process is of much'value when applied to lemon and orange juice. -These juices, upon keeping after sterilizing, develop peculiar flavors which obscure the distinctive flavor natural to the fresh juices. By treating lemon and orange juices with absorbent black, in the way which Ihave hereinbeforedescribed, these juices no longer deterlorate 1n flavor upon keeping after sterilizing.

Having thus described my invention, 1 claim: Y

A process for preservmg frult uice consisting in filtering the juice, treating the filtered juice with a sultable proportion of absorbent black, subjecting the mixture to filtration for effecting the separation of the absorbent black from the juice, then'adding infusorial earth to the juice and subjecting said mixture to filtration for effecting complete separation of traces of absorbent black from the treated juice, andfinally sterilizing thetreated product, substantially as specified. 

